


A Christmas In New York

by Olor



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/F, Fluff, New York City, Online Friendship, Online Relationship, Surprise Ending, Surprises, emma calls regina a good girl, emma has a dog named ava, emma is from california and has never seen snow before, friends to lovers quick, g!p emma but like no real smut, im too impatient for slowburn, regina is from new york, slowburn?? what slowburn?, they get tattoos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 03:42:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27707107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Olor/pseuds/Olor
Summary: When Emma meets Regina online, she gets curious as to what a Christmas in New York is like.
Relationships: Evil Queen | Regina Mills/Emma Swan
Comments: 30
Kudos: 95
Collections: Swan Queen Advent Calendar Collection 2





	1. Chapter 1

December 2nd 2019  
Regina pouted at the sight on her laptop screen. Her best friend was holding up the little white fluff ball named Ava, giving her head quick little kisses. Emma was known for her little bestie that she had owned for a few years now. Regina was introduced to Ava in the very beginning, just over a year ago. Emma and Regina had met first on Twitter, as they argued over their favourite characters, in the comment sections of one of those characters’ actor’s posts. 

That argument had moved to PMs after some rando had replied after four comments back and forth between Emma and Regina, that said “your sexual tension is giving the rest of us anxiety. go sext privately, geez”. Clearly, after getting that response, both girls were embarrassed and decided to move it into their private messages. Despite their argument, they sparked out a positive conversation, and had just continued to talk since then. About a month in, they had swapped numbers as it took too long to reply when they were at work, however texting was easier. Soon after that, pictures were swapped. Not even a week later they facetimed for the first time, and cleared up the small suspicion that the other was a 300lb man. 

They had been inseparable since, changed their bio’s to match each other’s (though they claim to their other online friends that they’re just friends, even though the rest of the fandom definitely sees the crushes on each other), have matching profile pics (it’s one image split into two, of a lesbian canon couple in the tv show they both watch), and matching layouts. Like one follower had said, “if that’s not gay, I don’t know what is”. 

“Ava is adorable, I just want to snuggle and cuddle her all day long, like the little hot pocket she is,” Regina gushed, staring at the screen in adoration as her friend giggled and set down the small dog with a wide smile on both of their faces. 

“Oh, she’s the perfect heating pad. She can tell when Ruby is on her period and will often lay on her lower stomach. I would think that that would cause more pain, on top of cramps, but Rubes actually told me that she’s light enough that it doesn’t put too much pressure, but the way her heat radiates also helps to get rid of the cramps, like a hot water bottle or something.”

Regina’s eyes widened, “I suppose, I never thought of it that way. She’s about ten pounds, right?” 

Emma nodded, “I believe she was eleven and a half last vet visit a couple months ago.”

“And the way you guys describe her, she must radiate a lot of heat, so I suppose it may work, yeah. I’ve always heard that dogs can sense when their humans are in pain or sick. Such smart little breeds,” Regina bent down and picked up a fairly large box from the ground, “shall we open these?” she asked excitedly. 

“Yes! Of course. You go first.” Emma moved her camera to show that she had the big box by her as well. They had decided to send each other christmas presents, since they couldn’t be together. Of course, they set a price limit, but of course, they both went above and beyond it. They both had cursed the other once they saw how large the boxes initially were, despite sending a big box themselves. The girls had decided to wait until they had both arrived and were able to open them together on facetime. 

Regina shuffled the camera a bit so Emma could see her opening it, without the box covering her whole face and upper body. She sat criss crossed on her bed and took the box cutter, and slid it across the tape holding it together. She pulled herself back and now sat on her knees, so she could see inside the box. The contents were covered in white tissue paper with gold circular confetti everywhere, which made Regina giggle. She slowly pulled it to the side and pulled out the small box set on top which was wrapped in white and gold wrapping paper, that seemed to be the ‘theme’ of this box. The brunette placed it on the bed and began to take everything else out of the box, which were mostly smaller boxes within the big box. Once the box was empty, she placed the big carrier box onto the floor and sat back normally again. She laughed looking at all of the stuff and turned to face the camera again. “Emma, you didn’t have to get me all of this. I haven’t even opened the individuals yet, yet I know a lot went into this.”

Emma shrugged, “Regina, I’m pretty sure we both went over the limit, so shush. Just look pretty and open your gifts!” she teased, causing Regina to throw her head back in laughter. 

“Yes ma’am,” Regina said after a moment to get herself together. She reached out and grabbed the first present she had taken out of the box and slowly unwrapped it. She opened the box and laughed at the contents, a ‘boobies’ phone case. She shook her head as Emma smirked across the country.

“I had to get it! The second I saw it all I could think of was when you said you were more of a boob girl” Emma reasoned, a smirk planted on her face the whole time. 

Regina chuckled at her logic and replaced the case she currently had on her phone, with the new one from Emma. then she moved onto the next gift, which turned out to be a stainless steel “you’re my person” bracelet. When Regina gave Emma the pouty smile with teary eyes, Emma held up her wrist, which wore the same bracelet. “And now we have matching ones!” Emma had exclaimed.

Regina went through the small pile of (13) gifts with gratefulness and she thanked Emma for each and every one. For some she shed a couple tears, while others made her burst out laughing. They included: a boobie phone case, a “you’re my person” bracelet, a heart necklace with an ‘E’ (to which Emma explained that her heart belonged to Regina in a “totally platonic” way, though she said it with a smirk on her face), a pair of feather earrings, a couple of bookmarks, a ‘California’’ candle, three of Emma’s favourite books, a throw blanket, a small roller bottle of Emma’s perfume, two of Emma’s sweaters (that smelled like the perfume with some added vanilla hints, Regina assumed from Emma’s shampoo), and a lamp. Regina was confused by the lamp, but Emma convinced her to plug it in. once she did, it lit up in three small flashes, and Emma had told her that it was one of a set of two long distance lamps that were connected, so whenever either one of them pressed the button on the remote, the lamp would flash, and they could choose the colours, as well. 

When Regina finished, she encouraged Emma to open her box. Like Regina’s, there were multiple things in the box that were individually wrapped. Regina sat and excitedly watched as Emma pulled away the deep red tissue paper on top and carefully dumped out the presents onto the soft landing of her bed. Regina gave Emma a big smile and nodded when Emma looked at the camera, which encouraged Emma to pick up a present and tear away the wrapping paper. 

The first item she unwrapped from regina was a small resin trinket box with a pressed yellow flower in the middle, as well as some glitter and gold flakes. Emma expressed that she thought it was one of the cutest things she had seen. The next out of a total of nine, was a cute little black leather belt, and Regina had simply giggled and explained that a couple months ago, Emma was complaining that she didn’t have enough belts that ‘went with everything’, so she picked out that one. The next present was a cute long and tan cardigan. Regina had chosen it out for Emma, thinking that it could tie together a bunch of outfits and would look great on Emma. The rest of the presents included: a round pizza blanket, funny socks, a coffee mug, a “new york” candle (Emma stated that great minds think alike when she unwraps this one), a cross body purse, and long distance touch bracelets. 

They both put on the long distance touch bracelets and turned them on. Regina chuckled when they both glowed a shade of blue, signalling that they were connected. Regina touched the surface of her bracelet and Emma’s went off. Emma tapped hers twice and Regina felt the buzz twice. They came up with a little code to follow by, one blue tap meant ‘hi’, two yellow taps meant ‘goodnight’, one green tap meant ‘can't talk right now’, and three pink taps meant ‘i love you’. Those were the ones they had come up with in the beginning, but decided to create more later on if those work out well. They smiled at each other through the screen and after some conversation, and multiple thank yous, they told each other that they loved each other and said their goodnights. It was only 8pm for Emma, but that meant that on the East coast it was 11pm. Sometimes they would facetime and lose track of time and talk well into the night. Tonight however wasn’t one of them, as Regina had to work the following morning at 7 am, which was never fun unless she got a minimum of a couple hours of sleep. Regina cleaned up the wrapping paper (and confetti, that inevitably got everywhere) and threw it all out, minus a little piece of the wrapping paper and a couple pieces of confetti, that she put into a box or ‘safe keeping’. 

Regina lit the California candle she had received from Emma and set it on her bedside table. Meanwhile, she changed out of her clothes to a new pair of panties and the grey Sweater Emma had given her. She immediately brought the collar up to her nose and smelled, inhaling Emma’s scent with a wide smile on her face. She turned her attention to her watch and turned the dial to switch colours, from blue to pink and tapped on the screen three times. Almost immediately, she got the same three pink taps back from Emma. Regina settled in bed and read for a little bit to calm herself down from the excitement of the evening. Before she fell asleep, she put her book away and turned the dial on her watch from pink to yellow and tapped twice. She reached over and blew out the candle set on her nightstand. As she settled under the covers now in complete darkness, she watched as her watch blinked twice in yellow, in coordination with the buzzing feeling she felt before drifting off to sleep, Emma Swan on her mind.


	2. 2

December 23rd 2019  
Regina swayed around her kitchen, dressed in only Emma’s ‘baby girl’ hoodie and a pair of spandex shorts, though because of the size of the sweater it looked like Regina wasn’t wearing any pants. She was, however, wearing fluffy Roots socks on top of her ‘you’re my person’ bracelet that she was wearing as an anklet at the moment, because her house’s floors were freezing, despite having the heat cranked. That Monday morning she didn’t have work due to Christmas, so she had taken advantage of it by sleeping in, reading in bed, and making herself pancakes for breakfast. Just as she was going to sit down at the island in her kitchen, she felt one buzz (glowing blue) on her wrist at the same time as someone knocking at the door. Regina responded to her watch first, giving one green tap before going towards the door. She looked out the peephole to see it covered. Confused, she unlocked the door and pulled it open. 

“Hi,” the blonde squeaked, an uncertain smile on her face. 

Regina’s eyes furrowed in confusion, before they teared up. Regina pushed forward and wrapped her arms around the blonde's neck, pulling her against her chest tightly. Regina started to sob into her neck as Emma rubbed her back with gloved hands.   
“Hey.. it's okay, ‘Gina, don’t cry, you’re gonna make me cry!” Emma whispered as she started to tear up as well. 

A couple moments Regina pulled away slightly without pulling her whole body out of Emma’s arms, “h-how.. How are you here?” Regina asked as tears steadily flew down her cheeks. Regina brought her hands up to cup Emma’s cheeks “you're.. Here. you're real. Oh god..”

“I, uh, I bought a ticket in early November. I got a bonus through work and I just.. had to. I’m hoping it's okay? It was supposed to be a good surprise. I-is it a good surprise?” 

Regina nodded quickly “the best surprise I’ve ever gotten. A-and when I was six I got a pony for my birthday, so,” both girls chuckled. “Come in, please, come in,” Regina told her as she eventually realized she wasn’t wearing pants and was shivering from the shock (but mostly the cold)

“Oh! Right, yeah, of course.” Emma carefully stepped in the door and closed it behind her. She took off her chelsea boots, not wanting to soak Regina’s floors. Regina helped Emma out of her ski jacket (and Emma made a joke about Regina wanting to take off her clothes that led to Regina laughing). Once Emma was out of her winter attire, she opened up her arms again, to which Regina immediately tucked herself into them, wrapping her arms around the blonde’s neck once again.  
Emma reached down and hooked her arms around Regina’s bare lower thighs (the thought made Emma blush) and picked her up. The brunette responded easily by wrapping her legs around Emma’s torso and burrowing her head into Emma’s neck. 

“”I can’t believe you’re here, Emma,” Regina murmured after she calmed down, “I can’t believe the first time I’m meeting you it looks like I don’t have pants on,” she blushed and caused Emma to laugh. Regina pulled her head away from Emma’s neck and looked her in the eyes. “Hi, you’re gorgeous,” Regina whispered with a big grin matching Emma’s.

Emma giggled “and you’re very pretty without makeup. Your little freckles are adorable,” Emma said genuinely, making Regina flush even more.

“And you.. Are really strong, I must be hurting you,” Regina’s eyes widened at that realization, she had been sitting comfortably in Emma’s arms for at least a minute. She squirmed a little until Emma put her down.

“I don’t mind,” Emma told her afterwards, “I lift heavier things, plus you’re all cute clinging like a koala,” she teased and ‘booped’ her nose.

Regina’s face scrunched up cutely and a dopey smile spread across her face. “Did you leave Ava with ruby?”

“No, she’s at the hotel. I checked in there before coming here,” Emma explained, “Ava is pretty good with traveling, so I thought, maybe you’d like to meet her?”

“Yes! I would love to meet the pup of my dreams, thank you very much, Regina giggled as Emma put on a fake offended look, 

“I thought I was the pup of your dreams??” she exclaimed and crossed her arms 

“You’re number two, darling,” Regina smirked, “if you would like to, you could go to the hotel and get your money back.. I have plenty of room here, and a couple guest rooms that you could use. I don’t mind at all. I would love to have you guys here. H-how long are you staying?”

“My flight back is on the 6th. I.. we wouldn’t want to impose on you. I know this isn’t exactly what you planned for the holidays, but you told me you didn't have plans, so I was hoping it would be alright.. So if you would like to we can spend the next two weeks together, including Christmas and New Years?” 

“Emma, I would love that. You have no idea how much I had dreamed of this, I just didn’t know it would come true.. You’re welcome to stay here. As long as you want, I understand if you want to keep your hotel, but just know that I really wouldn’t mind having you guys here.”

Emma smiled with tears trickling in her eyes, and nodded, “yeah, okay.” she pulled Regina in for another hug. “I'll check out of the hotel and have my stuff, and Ava, brought over.”

They came to a conclusion, and after yet another couple of hugs Emma left and headed for the hotel to get all of her stuff (including Ava), meanwhile Regina quickly ate her breakfast, showered, got dressed in leggings and a simple white blouse (and the fluffy socks again), and did her makeup. Then she had gone downstairs and found the spare key to give to Emma just in case, for the next two weeks. And then, she waited for her best friend to come home.


	3. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> minor smut/mature content?? i had a friend help me write it but she does not want to be named so credit to her for THAT scene <3

December 23rd 2019

Meeting Ava went well. Emma had sent a text in advance saying that she was two minutes away, which gave Regina some time to cut up an apple. For one, she wanted an apple. And two, Emma had mentioned before that Ava liked to eat apples, and Regina desperately wanted Ava to like her, especially if they were going to be staying for two weeks. When Emma came back, Regina had greeted them at the door, and helped Emma with the suitcase. She pushed it towards the staircase and left it there for the time being. Regina then led them to the kitchen, where Emma had set Ava’s travel cage down and opened it up. Regina was kneeling on the ground as she waited for Ava to come to her. She read that that was important. Regina held a small piece of apple out in an extended hand, which drew Ava in. Ava carefully walked over and sniffed the piece in the strange woman's hand before looking back at her human for confirmation, which she got with a small “It’s okay Ava!”. Ava had then turned around and taken the piece of apple from Regina. After a moment or two, the apple was gone and Ava turned back to Regina, waiting for more. The brunette chuckled and gave her another small piece. After the second piece was demolished, Ava hesitantly waddled towards Regina, and gave her what Emma had called the “royal sniff’. The small dog gave Regina her approval and nudged her head into Regina’s hand, silently demanding for pets. Regina considered that a win. 

Later that evening, when Emma and Regina had their first dinner together, Ava had sat at Regina’s feet (as Regina was sucking up to the dog and slowly feeding her little bits of their dinner). Regina, of course, made sure it was okay with Emma first. Emma had mentioned that she did get spoiled a fair bit, but just to keep it minimal, and Emma also had written Regina a list of foods that Ava could not eat, such as grapes, apple seeds, chocolate, and garlic. Regina ended up making Spaghetti as a quick and easy meal for the two (three) of them, and had ended up giving Ava little pieces of the ground beef. 

“You know,” Regina started as she reached down with another tiny piece of meat without taking her eyes away from Emma, “If I had known I would have company on Christmas, I would’ve probably at least bought a turkey, or prepared something for dinner. I’m a pretty decent cook and I like to cook, but I was just planning on doing a chicken breast or something like that with some veggies,”Regina admitted

Emma smiled and shrugged “oh well. We can figure it out, maybe we could order in? On me. You gotta let me know what restaurants around here you like. I want the full new york experience. I’ve already got snow done and checked off, and so does Ava,” They both laughed at the recent memory of Ava being in snow for the first time in her life. She was so white and the snow in Regina’s back yard was fairly deep so Ava had blended in very well. Ava had jumped around in it, before deciding she got cold and ran back inside. Because of her size, she got covered in snow, and Regina had to chase her around the bottom level of the house with a towel before the snow completely melted off and out of her fur. 

“Hm, I wonder if Adonis will be open. I should call Zelena and ask later on, I love the pasta from there. It’s by far the food equivalent of an orgasm, I swear,” Regina let out a small moan thinking about the food. Emma flushed and eyed her own plate. 

Later that evening, Regina had convinced Emma to watch a Christmas movie in her bedroom. Regina had led the way for both Emma and Ava upstairs to her bedroom, after they had made some popcorn and hot cocoa (and Ava got a small cup of whipped cream, too). Emma gasped at how familiar the bedroom had seemed. She had seen the room countless times on a screen, but seeing it in person really made her smile. It was bigger than it seemed on FaceTime, a lot bigger than she had expected. The king bed was placed perfectly in the middle of the room, against the back wall. Either side had a night stand, but Emma could tell which side Regina slept on. For one, the lamp she had given Regina was on the left side. As well as a stack of three books, the watch charger, an iphone charger, and a laptop. The other side had a normal lamp, and one book Emma had presumed Regina had just finished reading. And to confirm Emma’s suspicions, Regina headed to the left side of the bed after going into her closet and changing into pyjama pants and a large t-shirt. Regina took off her Bond Touch bracelet and set it on the charger. After a quiet “I’ll be back, feel free to change and get comfortable”, Regina slipped into the adjoining bathroom to take off her makeup and wash her face. In the meantime, Emma changed into a pair of basketball shorts and a hoodie from her duffle bag she had brought up with her. After that, she threw her dirty clothes back into the bag and sat on the bed. After slipping under the comforter, she realized Regina had silk sheets, and they felt kind of slippery. Fascinated, she squirmed around a little, only to have Regina come out of the bathroom at that exact moment, causing great embarrassment for Emma. 

“You, uh.. Have silk sheets. They feel weird,” Emma quietly spoke up, looking at Regina’s straight face with a perfectly pointed raised eyebrow in fear. Emma slowly sat up in the bed, just as Regina’s mouth curled up into a small smile.

Regina snorted and shook her head, “you dork,” Regina shut the bedroom door and turned off the light, before asking Emma to turn on the lamp on her side of the bed. She grabbed the tv remote from her night stand drawer and handed it to Emma before she slipped under the comforter as well. She put Ava in the crate in the bathroom as per Emma’s request, because she was worried Ava would pee on something due to nerves. After searching for a couple of minutes on netflix, they ended up putting on The Grinch. They settled down quickly and ended up slowly moving together until Emma was holding Regina, and Regina was cuddled up and resting on Emma’s chest. All was well until Regina spoke up. 

“Hey, Em?” she whispered, more so half asleep than anything

“Yeah?” Emma whispered back, confused

“I-i don’t want this to ruin our friendship, but uh, there’s something i need to confess”

“Okay, what is it?”

“I’ve been in love with you ever since we had that argument. And I understand if you don’t feel the same way, I don’t want to lose you, I just can’t keep it in any longer, you know? Please don’t hate me,” Regina admitted in a small voice, without looking up at Emma. She couldn’t look at Emma while she rejected her. 

“It’s okay, Regina. I.. feel the same way. I didn’t know how to tell you because I didn’t think you felt the same way,”

“You’re my dork. Of course I feel the same way,” Regina turned her head up, so she could see Emma’s eyes. Their sights locked on each other, and before they knew it they were slowly leaning in, and eventually, their lips met for the first time. The first time turned into a second time, turned into Regina shifting until she was on top of Emma and that became a very passionate third kiss. Regina’s hands wandered down Emma’s chest and arms, as Emma’s hands stayed placed and slowly caressed Regina's hips and lower back. Regina pulled at the bottom of Emma’s shirt and Emma allowed her to take it off, leaving Regina’s hands roaming and caressing her chest and abs. Emma drew small moans from Regina that began to turn Emma on further. As Emma felt herself getting undeniably hard, she pulled away from the kiss, causing Regina to pout and whine

“Regina.. You remember our conversation? A-a few months ago? About my friend? D-down, well, there?”

Regina smirked and gave a small nod of confirmation, “mhm, what about it?”

“I just.. Well it's getting hard. And i just need to know, and I’m okay with either, i-is this a make out session, or are we going to go.. All the way?” Emma gulped, looking up at her friend? Bestie? Girlfriend? Lover? Who knows anymore

Regina bit her lip and sat down on Emma’s lower stomach, hips area. “I’m okay with whatever you’re comfortable with, darling. I would like to go, you know, all the way if you do. No pressure, hun.”

Emma nodded, “yeah, okay. I’d like that, too,” Emma confirmed and rested her hands on Regina’s upper thighs, not knowing where to go from here. Luckily, Regina took lead by taking her own shirt and pulling it up and over, tossing it across the room. Regina leaned forward and placed a soft kiss behind Emma’s ear and whispered,

“Claim me, Em-ma..” and that was all Emma needed to hear.


	4. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this one is v v short but ig there's an important scene here

December 24th 2019

Regina woke up first, naked, cuddled up to Emma in her bed. It took her a second or two to remember what happened the night before. She smiled, knowing Emma shared her feelings. She shifted to nudge Emma, but when she didn’t wake, she pulled out of the bed and stretched. Emma definitely wore her out the night before, and she was still a little sore. She waddled over to the other side of the bed and picked up the t-shirt Emma had been wearing for less than an hour the night before. She put it on, and smiled when she saw it went to her mid thighs. She found a pair of socks from her closet and put those on as well. Then she went to the bathroom, went pee and then let Ava out of the crate. Her and Ava snuck down stairs, Regina being careful not to wake the sleeping blonde, and Regina let Ava outside to do her thing while she got out the ingredients to make pancake batter. She let Ava in before she began to make the pancake batter, and then proceeded to cook them in a frying pan, three at a time. In between flips, Regina had cut up some strawberries and kiwi, and got some blueberries as well to go on top. By the time everything was cooked, Emma had strolled downstairs in a pair of grey sweatpants and a hoodie. Just as Regina was flipping the last pancake, a pair of strong arms slid around her petite torso with a small hug from behind. 

“Hey,” Regina smiled as she turned around in Emma’s arms. Regina tilted her head up as Emma leaned down to press their lips together for yet another kiss. This one was fairly quick, compared to some from the previous night, and the thought made Regina blush. “I made pancakes,” she told the blonde, who then thanked her appreciatively. 

As they sat down to eat breakfast, Emma spoke up, “I think we need to talk,” she had said in a normal tone, but Regina’s head shot up in alert

“A-about?”

“Us.. Regina, I’ve been in love with you for a while. I would like to try and pursue a relationship between the two of us, but if it doesn’t work out, I can't lose you as my best friend.”

“I feel the same way, Emma,” Regina nodded understandingly, “I’ve been terrified to tell you, not only because I didn’t think you shared my affection, but because you’re my best friend and I don’t know if I could handle losing you like that.”

Emma nodded, and swallowed the piece of pancake that was stuffed in her mouth, “I would like to propose this, we.. take this for a test drive. You become my girlfriend and I become yours. We explore our feelings for one another without bringing our friendship into it. And one other thing, no sex. Last night, it was.. Amazing, to say the least. I think we connected on a different level. But I think if we proceed trying this relationship out, with sex, we may gumble our feelings with, attraction,and that isn’t all there is to a relationship, you know?”

“Yeah, I completely understand. I don’t regret last night, at all, and I would’nt change it for anything, but maybe we went too fast and jumped into it, without talking. I’m glad you brought this up.” 

“I agree, so.. Girlfriends?” Emma smiled hopefully

“Girlfriends,” Regina nodded in confirmation.


	5. 5

December 25th 2019  
The night before, on Christmas Eve, they decided to sleep in separate beds. Regina was in her bedroom, meanwhile Emma was in the guest room just across the hall from Regina. Regina had woken up Christmas morning to Emma bringing her “breakfast” in bed. And by “breakfast”, I mean cinnamon rolls and milk. Regina personally thought it was super sweet that Emma had thought of making her breakfast, but she also kind of thought that cinnamon rolls were too sweet to be considered a Breakfast food. Either way, the two (three) of them ended up sitting criss crossed on Regina’s bed as they shared the plate of food. After breakfast, Emma had told Regina to get ready for the day, and to dress warm. Regina was confused, but agreed anyways. Emma went downstairs and did the dishes before she went up to the guest room. Emma changed into a pair of blue semi-ripped jeans with blackout pantyhose underneath, a white long sleeved turtleneck top, her ‘you’re my person’ bracelet on her wrist, and brushed her hair up into a messy blonde bun sat atop of her head. She pulled on her chelsea boots as well. Emma threw on some mascara and waited for Regina to be done. Over in Regina’s bedroom, she had put on a pair of insulated black leggings, one of Emma’s hoodies that she had snatched out of her suitcase, and a black puffer vest. She did light makeup, using concealer lightly under and around her eyes, as well as around her mouth. She used some mascara and very little eyeliner before sealing it with a lightt mist of setting spray. She left her hair down in it’s natural curls that she would have normally straightened and put on her boots, and then met Emma in the hallway. They headed towards the front door, but before they let, Regina made Emma put on a toque and her gloves, and Regina did the same. A taxi had been waiting for them just outside the house, so they hurried in and out of the cold. The taxi then took them to New York times square in ten minutes. Emma paid the driver and the two girls hopped out hand in hand. They walked around for a couple minutes, making jokes and laughing as they walked around the streets. Emma was in fascination as the snow fell from the sky in a beautiful manner. She took many photos of the snow, Regina and the snow, herself and Regina, and herself and Regina with the snow. After close to fifteen minutes of wandering around, Emma admitted that she wanted to go see the huge tree she had heard about, but she didn’t know where it was. Regina had giggled at her girlfriend’s cuteness before leading the way to the center. After a couple minutes of walking, the tree became more visible, and therefore Emma’s excitement grew. Regina couldn’t help but take photo’s of her dork, and they even managed to get a few candid shots of them making out when Regina didnt know her finger was on the button. They watched as the lights were turned on on the huge Christmas Tree, before Regina had taken them to a close coffee shop, where they had sat down for a little bit, had lunch and hot chocolate. After lunch, Regina had called them another taxi, and they were taken to an outdoor skating rink. To Regina’s huge surprise, her girlfriend had never been skating (on ice) before, so Regina rented them two pairs of skates and had Emma sit on the bench as she helped her into the skates. Regina then got herself into her own skates and then led Emma over to the rink. After many trials and errors, they eventually found a method that worked. Regina was skating backwards as she held onto Emma’s hands and pulled her along. They both got so many cute pictures and made alot of memories (let's be honest, at least a good 70% of them were of Emma falling) so when their skate rentaltime was up 45 minutes later, they were both okay with getting off the ice. Regina helped Emma out of the skates and they wound up in a tattoo shop after wandering around a bit more. 

They had both said in the past that they wanted matching tattoos, and agreed that it could make the day better. They had discussed it previously as more of a joke, but when they stumbled into the tattoo parlour, they both knew exactly what they wanted.   
Emma went first. Emma held her right hand into Regina’s, as her left wrist was getting tattooed. She was getting a medium sized feather on old self harm scars. Both Emma and Regina loved feathers, because of a quote they had both heard many years ago, and during the first few months of their friendship, Regina had gotten really sad, so Emma began to tell her the quote whie on facetime, but Regina had cut her off by saying the rest of the quote. So, alongside the feather, the words “you are where you need to be” were written in a soft cursive. It took just over an hour to complete. Regina was next. Her tattoo location was a little more scary, as it was just under, and slightly off to the side of her left breast. Regina was getting the same feather, a little smaller, with the same font, and the rest of the quote that had said “just take a deep breath”. Regina had to lay down on the table with the majority of her shirt raised/off. She was laying on her side and Emma was sitting in a chair facing Emma. Emma held Regina’s hand, and when the needle first touched her skin, she hissed and squeezed Emma’s hand. Emma smiled encouragingly at her, “good girl, Regina. Squeeze my hand when you need to”. This went on for another hour until both Emma and Regina were done with their tattoos. Regina insisted on paying for both, despite it being Emma’s idea, since Emma had literally flown across the country to see her. By then, it was getting close to 6pm, so they paid (and tipped) the tattoo artist before leaving and getting a taxi home. 

The two girls ended up ordering in like they had mentioned before, from one of Regina’s favourite restaurants. Both with chicken dishes, they ate at the small dining room table along with a couple glasses of wine between the two of them. They snapped a couple pictures for memories sake, before moving to the couch to watch a movie. Emma had sat on one side of the couch and Regina pouted until Emma opened up her arms, to which she then curled up into, with her head resting on Emma’s thigh. Emma couldn’t help but smile at her girlfriend as she ran her fingers through the short brunette hair. She had everything she had ever dreamed of in the past year, she tried not to think about the fact that she had to leave in a little less than two weeks. Emma got an idea and used her free hand to reach for her phone and open twitter. She tapped a button and began to type out a short but sweet post. To finish it off, she took a picture of Regina laying on her (though her hair covered her face so you couldn’t tell it was Regina) and posted it. Almost immediately, Regina’s phone started to blow up a little bit, which caused confusion for the brunette. She sat up and grabbed her phone to check what all the fuss was. It turns out, she was tagged in a bunch of comments and quote tweets, and the majority of them had said a variation of “OMG Regina is gonna freak!!” and “so who’s gonna tell Regina?”. Regina looked up at Emma, who had been watching Regina with a smirk. Emma turned on her own phone to show Regina her tweet that had read “so, Santa brought me a girlfriend for Christmas, wbu?” with the picture she had taken of the unrecognizable regina laying on her lap. 

Regina smiled, shook her head and liked the tweet, before creating one of her own. A smirk spread across her face as her nails clacked against the screen, and with a final tap, a woosh sound was made. Emma watched her curiously, before looking back at her own phone and searching Regina’s account. She found the post Regina had just written, that had said “guess who flew across the country to be my Christmas gift?” along with a picture Regina had taken while they were eating of Emma, wine and Ava. Both of their posts had already reached most of their followers, and their small fanbase within the fandom had been going crazy about their semi confirmed relationship. They both looked up from the screens and to each other and giggled simultaneously. They then decided to hold off on actually confirming it, and rather they turned off their ringers and cuddled back up again. They ended up falling asleep together, with Regina’s head once again resting in Emma’s lap as Emma’s fingers were tangled up through the brunette’s hair. Once they were asleep, Ava ended up joining the couple by hopping up on the couch and laying down against Regina’s chest.


	6. six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter, you're in for a nice (I'm not sure, you decide) surprise at the end...

The next week went on far too quickly for Regina’s liking. The two girls ended up partying with Regina’s sister and a few of their mutual friends on New Years at a fancy get together, but they ended up sneaking away just before midnight to have their moment together when the clock struck midnight. Not too long after, both girls were complaining of being tired, so by one am they were back home (Regina’s home, Emma’s temporary home) and in bed, exhausted from the exciting day they had had. Nothing had happened that night besides some cuddling and light kisses exchanged between the two of them. 

On the first of January, Regina had decided to take Emma to her favourite museum in New York, and they ended up making a day out of it at the American Museum of Natural History. Emma had been quite fascinated with all of the dinosaur exhibits, and gave Regina some decent quality videos (that Emma had zero clue about until later on, when Regina was watching them that night in bed) where Emma was jumping around very giddy, almost childish. That was only the second display they had managed to get through before both of their tummies were growing, demanding lunch. They had then gone down to the cafeteria and bought overpriced grilled cheese and soup, before making their way back up on their route around the museum. Regina had made sure to take Emma to her favourite exhibit, the blue whale. As Regina was telling Emma facts about them Emma had butted in with her own fact, “Did you know that the blue whale is the largest living thing?”  
To which, Regina laughed at and shook her head, before correcting her, “the blue whale is the largest living mammal. The largest living thing is actually a fungus called Armillaria Ostoyae, which takes up to almost four square miles in a forest, somewhere in Oregon.” 

On the second day of January, Regina started to feel a little nauseous, so they decided to stay in for the day. This meant Emma insisted on Regina staying in bed while watching a movie so she could make them pancakes for breakfast. Then, once again Emma had instisted on having Regina stay put as she then made them chicken noodle soup for lunch. Emma had spoon fed Regina half a bowl (yes, Emma was taking this far too seriously) of the soup before Regina had just asked for some cuddles. Eventually the two fell into a nap and woke up later on in the evening, to which they reheated the leftovers of the soup from earlier that day and ate that for dinner before Regina crashed again. Emma didn’t mind, but she didn’t leave Regina’s side, either. Emma ended up laying beside Regina in the bed with the movies still running in the background, her phone in her hand. She had been googling Regina’s ‘symptoms’, which were simply fatigue and nausea. WebMD had been no help, as most of the articles surrounding Regina’s symptoms had said that Regina had cancer and should have died weeks ago. After reading that awful answer, she had switched out of safari and over to twittler, and there she browsed for a little while before shutting off her phone and cuddling into her girlfriend, with small worries of doubt clouding the back of her mind. 

The third of January brought the vomiting, Regina had woken up around 7:30 in the morning to the immediate feeling of needing to hurl. She peeled herself out and away from Emma’s arms before nearly running to the bathroom and letting it go. The absence of warmth is what woke Emma up, just a few minutes later. When she consciously realized that Regina was missing, she had gotten up to look for her just as Regina had started hurling again. The sound had brought Emma to the bathroom, and her eyes filled with pity and concern as she dropped down to the floor beside her girlfriend and pulled her hair away and out of her face. She used the hairtie on her wrist to put Regina’s hair into the best bun that she could before placing a soothing hand on the small of her girlfriend’s back that started to rub slow, small circles as Emma whispered some encouraging and sweet words. When Regina finished, she pulled away from the seat slowly and slumped down from her knees to her ass. Emma was quick to reach for a small cloth to wipe at Regina’s mouth. After Regina had told Emma that she didn’t need to throw up anymore, Emma had shut the toilet lid and flushed it before sitting down on the cold bathroom floor. She pulled her girlfriend into her lap for a hug which ended in Regina crying into Emma’s chest for at least a few minutes. After they eventually got up off the floor, Emma helped Regina clean herself up and change into a new pair of pajamas before they started another day in bed. 

On the fourth day of January, Regina had a little breakdown as she apologized to Emma for wasting their last few days together being stuck in bed sick with the flu. Regina had also made Emma stop kissing her anywhere near the mouth as she didn’t want to give the flu to Emma. Emma had told her that she didn’t care how they spent their final days together, She knew that her girlfriend hadn’t purposely caught the flu just to stay in bed, no one ever chose to be sick. 

On the fifth day of January, Regina felt fine. She woke up that morning in Emma’s arms, which had immediately given her a boost of serotonin that she needed after feeling ill for the past few days. As she silently observed a sleeping Emma, pain and sadness swept over her as she remembered it was going to be their last full day together. Emma’s flight was the next day at 2:30 pm, which meant that they had 30 hours together, give or take. She began to wake Emma just after 9am by placing small kisses on her forehead, mixed with a couple soft “Emma”s or “hey baby, wake up”. It only took a few minutes to wake up her girlfriend, before they were beaming at each other in the soft glow of the sunlight. They stayed in bed, just enjoying each other's company for a little while, unitl Emma’s tummy started to rumble, which made them both laugh. The girls eventually got out of bed to shower ~seperately~ and get ready for the day. They ended up eating out for brunch before they did a little shopping, but made sure to bring Ava. Regina already knew she was going to be missing the small fur creature she had come to love and be attached to over the past two weeks. Eventually, and far too quickly to Regina’s liking, the day came to an end. They headed back to the house and Regina had taken Emma’s suitcase hostage while Emma was in the kitchen making tea, as she took nearly all of Emma’s hoodies and hid them into her own closet. She then zipped it back up and left it where she had originally found it, just in time for Emma to come up with two cups and catch her walking away from it. Emma suspected something, but didn’t comment on it. Instead, she gave Regina the cup of tea before settings hers down on the nightstand and cawling into bed. Soon the tea was forgotten, as Regina immediately crawled into Emma’s arms and tried her best to keep her tears at bay. After a long day of pushing their sadder feelings aside, they both needed a moment to just let go. Regina broke the silence with a few muffled sobs into Emma’s chest, which then triggered Emma’s tears as well. The two let out their tears as they held onto each other tightly, as if their lives had depended on it, until they cried themselves to sleep.

The next morning wasn’t any better. Regina insisted on staying in bed for the morning, refusing to let go of Emma. At one point Emma nearly had to pry Regina off of her so she could go to the bathroom, and when she was finished, Regina had been waiting outside the bathroom door for her. The word clingy was an understatement, at this point. At noon Emma had opened her suitcase to pack the last toiletries she was missing, and when she saw that every one of her hoodies were missing, she raised her eyebrows over at her girlfriend, who was sitting on the bed watching her with innocent puppy eyes. Emma chuckled at her cuteness before she made her way over to the closet, and she ‘stole’ some of Regina’s hoodies in return which made Regina cry. After a little while, they had calmed down and made their way to the airport. Emma had spent the 20 minutes leading up to the time that she had to board holding Regina in her arms, whispering that it was going to be okay. When the announcement came on, Emma let her go and let Regina say another goodbye to Ava. As everyone was lining up, Emma pulled Regina into a final kiss goodbye. With a last “I love you. Thank you for a perfect Christmas in New York.”, Emma picked up Ava in the carrier and pulled her suitcase through a final metal detector and started to board the plane that was going to take her nearly 3,000 miles away. 

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Three weeks later, Regina was sitting at her kitchen counter in one of Emma’s big hoodies and her laptop sitting in front of her. With a deep breath, she accepted Emma’s incoming facetime. They smiled at each other through the screen and said their hellos, before Regina had blurted out, “we need to talk.”

Emma's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and asked a terrifying question, “are you breaking up with me?”

“No, no no no,” Regina was quick to decline. 

As she played with the long droopy sleeves of the hoodie, she looked at the screen,   
“I’m Pregnant”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this is where I leave this story, I hope everyone liked it! Thanks for reading. I left the ending open, let me know how you feel if I were to continue this with a sequel!


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